Can having an eye for detail be taught?

6 min readOct 27, 2024

The majority lacking an eye for detail is the reason that excellent-minded folks cannot delegate much, even when they have grown so big.

While scrolling through Facebook, I came across a post by Olajide Abiola, paraphrased above.

As someone who takes pride in my keen attention to detail, the post resonated with me because I have experienced my fair share of frustration with delegating tasks.

My inclination toward perfectionism often has me doing the dishes a little longer because every part has to be squeaky clean. The same goes for hand-washed clothes.

Is this obsession normal for designers? No, not for the majority.

In my craft, I am weirdly obsessed with an 8-point grid system (one that requires every value to be a multiple of 8). Among its other benefits, it creates harmony.

But…

Running a business or being part of a team requires collaboration and delegation.

How do you delegate tasks while feeling that the results may not meet the high standards you’ve grown accustomed to when you do them yourself? Especially when you’re the face of the project. This has been my dilemma for years. Hence, I asked:

Can it be taught? — Having an eye for detail?

In 2021 I co-founded a design agency, and lately, we have experienced a huge influx of clients.

With the volume of work this surge in clients brought, combined with everything going on in our lives outside of work — I, for one, moved to a new country and am studying for a second degree — it was obvious we needed extra hands.

We took to hiring beginner to junior designers and developers due to budget constraints, bearing the burden of putting together a strong process for design and development. This took a fair amount of time, and we’ve gotten mixed results, but we’ve come to a strong conclusion:

Yes! Having an eye for detail is a skill that can be taught, contrary to widely accepted beliefs.

Case study

John Doe (Junior Developer)

A very rusty, beginner-level developer with only knowledge of HTML and CSS. Heck, we founders even knew better.

What did we do?

We placed him on decent pay while doing all the heavy lifting — prototyping every Figma design down to the tiniest details we desired before moving to development. This meant more time was spent on design, and being the Head of Design, I had to get my hands dirty again. I wasn’t going to transition to a manager that quickly. 🤭

That process has moved to translating the same design to a no-code tool, including the interactions, states, and transitions — a proper working prototype before moving to actual code development.

Does this take away the initial effort? Not exactly, but we were going to do that anyway — present a no-code package therefore it was an effort with better ROI.

The process also helped John’s confidence and curiosity, knowing that this can be done with code (I mean, no-code tools translate design to code, right?).

Result

Two months down the line, and the output is way better. No team member has to stress about the little details — not me, not my cofounder. They are attended to while we enjoy the updates, remaining vigilant to ensure that the level of competence is consistent.

How did we do it?

We made excellence the culture

If you must demand excellence, you must embody it. I pay attention to all the design and development details — button width, letter spacing, line height, technology, you name it. My co-founder, on the other hand, pays attention to all the business details, obsessing over the perfect marketing copy like it’s the most important decision in the world, crafting detailed contracts, and setting up a system/process for doing things. It is safe to say that we walk the talk. This makes it easier for someone else to pick up these traits, especially if they look up to us.

We were upfront

We communicated the need for excellence as if our lives depended on it. From the contracts to the hiring interviews, onboarding calls, and project kick-off meetings, the emphasis is always on delivering the best every time. We have been doing this so much that we sound like broken records — even to ourselves 😅

We developed systems/processes

From onboarding clients to actual client work and output, we set up systems and processes. This, in turn, is passed down to anyone seeking to join the company.

We documented everything

The wins, the fails, the attempts. We got feedback from John and others. We needed these to tweak things to perfection, and we can easily replicate the success with someone else since we have the previous journey documented to fall back on.

We monitored everyone closely

Initially, we were the assholes. We had to be micro-managers early on. The goal was for the trainees to grow under close supervision. We didn’t have to do that forever. We pointed out errors and imperfections, addressing them when necessary. It sent a message that this is important.

We were patient

We’re all human, right? We didn’t start as masters. And I’d argue that every master was trained too. We were firm but treated them as we would treat ourselves.

We asked about their day and were genuinely interested in them and their growth. We held them to a certain standard, knowing that growth takes time. The goal is for them to grow, not immediately become superhumans.

We tracked growth

We looked for improvements in their work, letting them know that their efforts were seen and appreciated. If there didn’t appear to be any growth over time, we communicated that, reflected on our process/system, and made changes if needed.

Lastly, we weren’t afraid to let anyone go. We need to take care of ourselves and the business, and not growing despite our intentional efforts doesn’t help us do that.

We rewarded positive outcomes

We rewarded them with gratitude, better pay, and more work 🤭

The reward for good work is more work.

We celebrate wins with them, talking about it with so much glee that they feel our excitement too. It’s a godly task to redeem a lost one. If heaven can rejoice at that, why not us? 😉

We had a checklist

This is similar to documenting. We didn’t just say, “Be detailed.” That is such a vague term. In what ways can the trainee be? We presented them with a checklist of things to tick off every time they were working, informing them that all items must be ticked off before being sent in for review.

Here’s a first draft of i38’s UI design checklist used by our in-house designers/trainees.

Here’s a first draft of i38’s UI design checklist used by our in-house designers/trainees. The final output is much better, with more to look out for, with videos, GIFs, and links to better communicate the expectations.

Hear from others

The next thing I did after coming across the post that inspired this writing was to put it up on my WhatsApp story to gather the views of others. I did get mixed responses, but here are some that support this writing.